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Prayer for the Eyes Annunciation Phaidon Press, 2000. 256 pages. Architecture of Silence: Cistercian Abbeys of France Photographs by David Heald. Reviewed by Michael Wilt
That is true enough in human relations, and often, too, in the living of a genuine life of spirit. While in spiritual matters such as prayer and liturgy it is common to depend on words, the people at Phaidon Press have come up with a group of books, The Annunciation Series, that provides abundant opportunity for the viewer to meditate on the life of Christ via visual representations spanning the two millennia since his birth. |
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Sandro Botticelli, “Annunciation,” 1489 |
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The other three books in the Annunciation Series have not been seen by Nimble Spirit, but we trust their content and execution is as impressive and worthwhile as that of Annunciation. The other titles are: Last Supper Crucifixion Descent from the Cross |
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Phaidon's series begins with Annunciation. In this event, as told in the first chapter of Luke's gospel, the angel Gabriel visits the young virgin, Mary, and tells her she has found favor with God and will conceive a son who will be called Jesus. Artists have for centuries taken these several verses of gospel text as inspiration. Annunciation presents more than one hundred such images in this missal-like book. The images are primary; the minimal text points to subtle details about traditional motifs used in depicting the event (symbols such as baskets and trees are briefly explained, for example), giving the viewer no excuse not to savor the images fully. Those for whom words, words, words, sometimes become too much will appreciate this chance to witness the Annunciation through the eyes of the greatest artists of many centuries. From the anonymous works in illuminated manuscripts, to the classics of Leonardo, Titian, and Goya, to moderns like Dali, Richter, and Warhol, Annunciation is a feast of images. Viewed from the perspective of an art historian or a person at prayer, these many depictions of a key moment will embed the moment itself into the heart and bones of the viewer. Another beautifully-made book that draws the viewer to contemplation through visual art is Architecture of Silence, with photographs by David Heald. Heald spent many years photographing twelfth- and thirteenth-century Cistercian abbeys in France, and about one hundred of his images are presented in this large-format book. Heald's photos feature the abbeys themselves -- no human beings appear -- and in some cases the landscapes in which they are situated. These images of naves, galleries, transepts, chapter rooms, church facades, and so on are rich with texture, pattern, and the play of light. As with the paintings in Annunciation, one may view them with an historian's or theologian's eye; but Heald has captured more than the stonework and arches and shadows. He has captured silence itself, the remnants of prayer that still inhabit these buildings that no longer house living and breathing monks. Viewing them can become an act of prayer or meditation, a liturgy without words. Terryl N. Kinder's introduction to the photos provides a brief but thorough overview of Cistercian monastic spirituality -- its origins and practices and especially its architecture. Kinder's prose suits the photos well, enhancing one's appreciation of the silence that these works of architecture uphold. "One essential point in understanding early Cistercian spirituality," Kinder writes, "is that in the Middle Ages the distinction that we now draw between thinking and doing was far less clearly delineated." David Heald's photos honor that essential point and invite the viewer to engage in notions of the spirit that are perhaps all too foreign in the modern world. Architecture of Silence is a beautiful book, a breath of prayer that can change the shape of a day. |
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